Low-Income Family Center to Remain Open

The Family Resource Center is an agency that helps low-income families by giving clothes and home supplies. The center was given new life recently.

About two months ago, the staff at the center in Wisconsin Rapids thought the doors would close. But that's before some people who worked here got together and did something about it.

"We decided we needed to do something to keep this open. We need to make it a permanent place in our community," said Jeannette Ostrum, coordinator for the Center

"Too many people needed it. So what we did was we put our heads together," said Karolyn Weber, President of Hope's Door.

That's the name of the new center when it reopens in August.

When it reopens, Weber will be part of the all-volunteer staff that oversees the operation. That's how it will be run until the financing is more stable. The women are working hard because the center serves 15,000 people a year.

And for Weber, being president of the center is vastly different than when she was a client nearly two decades ago.

"I was in need of this place," she said. "Without it, I wouldn't have made it. We'd have been homeless."

The center will be run without any government support and will rely solely on private donations.

They're always taking donations and they're looking for an attorney to do some pro-bono work so they can achieve 501C3 status as a nonprofit organization.

To find out more information, Karolyn Weber can be reached at 715-424-8122.